In victory for press, high court strikes down repressive law

New York, May 7, 2009--The
Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision to strike down the 1967 Press Law,
a measure that imposed harsh penalties for libel and slander, is a crucial step
forward in the campaign to eliminate criminal defamation laws in the Americas,
the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ and other groups had long
urged that the anachronistic law be removed from the books.

Brazil's
highest court, in a 7-4 vote dated April 30, ruled that the 1967 law violated constitutional
guarantees of free expression, local and international press reports said.

Adopted under the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil between
1961 and 1985, the provision set prison terms of up to three years for criminal
defamation. The press law defined alleged violations in broad terms that
included reporting deemed offensive to public morals; reporting that a
plaintiff finds damaging to his reputation or offensive to his dignity; reporting
that is considered subversive to public and political order; and reporting of
"true" facts that are considered distorted or provocative. It also allowed
authorities to censor media outlets and writers, and to seize publications.

"We commend Brazil's
highest tribunal for eliminating this notoriously repressive press law," said
CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría. "This is a milestone in
the battle to eliminate criminal defamation in Latin
America and around the world."

Brazilian journalists can still be jailed for up to two
years under criminal defamation laws that remain in the penal code. "We urge
Brazilian authorities to continue in the spirit of this ruling and repeal all
remaining criminal defamation laws," added Lauría.

The 1967 Press Law had been used to systematically harass
critical journalists. Criminal defamation lawsuits against the Brazilian media
have numbered in the thousands over the last five years, according to CPJ
research and news reports. Businessmen, politicians, and public officials file
multiple lawsuits against news outlets and journalists as a way to pressure
them, strain their financial resources, and force them to halt their
criticisms.

One notable case is Lúcio Flávio Pinto, editor of
semimonthly newspaper Jornal Pessoal and a 2005 recipient of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award. Pinto, based
in the city of Belém
in the Amazonian state of Pará, reported on drug trafficking, environmental
devastation, and political and corporate corruption. In return, he was
threatened, physically attacked, and targeted with dozens of criminal and civil
defamation lawsuits, Pinto told CPJ in a 2005 interview.

As part of a systematic campaign aimed at eliminating
criminal defamation laws in Latin America, CPJ
had lobbied against the restrictive Brazilian 1967 provision. In November 2005,
CPJ
had urged the Brazilian federal government to file a petition with the
Supreme Federal Tribunal to overturn the Press Law, which was used by powerful
plaintiffs to silence journalists nationwide.

In February 2008, the high court ruled that 22 of the Press
Law's articles were incompatible with the 1988 constitution, which guarantees
free expression and prohibits censorship. The tribunal suspended the articles until
it could take a final look at the constitutionality of the law this year.

The new decision supplements the growing body of
international legal opinion that journalists should not be jailed for criminal
defamation. In September 2004, the Inter-American
Court, the legal arm of the Organization of
American States, ruled that Paraguayan politician Ricardo
Canese's criminal defamation conviction violated international law. The
court declared that the criminal proceedings themselves violated the American
Convention on Human Rights, which Paraguay had ratified, because they
were not "necessary in a democratic society."

In an August 2004 ruling that overturned the criminal
defamation conviction of Costa Rican journalist Mauricio
Herrera Ulloa, the Inter-American
Court said that critics of public officials must
have "leeway in order for ample debate to take place on matters of public
interest."

And in April 2007, Mexican President Felipe Calderón
Hinojosa signed
a bill that effectively eliminated criminal libel and slander at the
federal level, directing such complaints to the civil courts. Mexico joined El
Salvador as the first countries in Latin
America to repeal defamation as a criminal offense.